


The Blue-Bladed Sword

by sleeperservice



Category: Arthurian Mythology
Genre: Brotherly Angst, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-09 21:38:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19894747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleeperservice/pseuds/sleeperservice
Summary: A jest of Arthur’s affects his relationship with his foster brother and right-hand man more than he will ever know.





	The Blue-Bladed Sword

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Scytale](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scytale/gifts).



Kay wondered how his relationship with his king had become so bad. It hadn’t started that way; Arthur was not his natural brother but as soon as he was fostered with Kay’s family, Arthur became the sibling Kay had never really had. This didn’t mean that the relationship was all sun and honey; brothers always teased each other. Unfortunately, this also meant that brothers knew best where to stick the knife into the other.

He wasn’t jealous of Arthur. The royal blood was Arthur’s, always, never Kay’s, and Kay always knew that he had no chance of ruling anything under his name more substantial than his father’s land. In any case, Arthur was merely the man who held Kay’s leash in command. Kay would have, and did, go off to any task Arthur had set him and did it the best he could for the glory of Arthur and Britain. If only some glory had been given to Kay himself; but that was a regret that should be left to the past. Kay performed the deeds that held a kingdom together through the unfailing strength of his body and mind. There would not be a coherent Britain without Arthur, and there would not be one without himself.

What Kay could not forgive Arthur, more than anything else in the world, was his mockery. He knew Kay did not have much of a sense of humor, about himself or others. Forever cold, they said at Kay’s birth, and it was correct. Even his anger ran cold. Some of the tasks Arthur set him to do—pluck the whiskers from a man!—seemed silly, but to Kay they were as grave as any. They had a purpose. But to call Kay a coward because his approach minimized risk was unforgivable. Not only had he let other knights mock him, Arthur had mocked him in front of all.

Kay now knew where his loyalty lay. It was to Britain and its people, always and forever. It was for everything around Arthur: his wife, her women, Arthur’s castles and their staff, the procession of the court and the smooth functioning of the kingdom. He would stand tall behind Arthur, but he was no longer with him. Other knights, younger, stronger, more favored, could do the deeds of strength and courage. Kay would do what he must to make sure the kingdom did not fall, to keep the scheming and unworthy from spreading their poison at court. He would not fail.

**Author's Note:**

> The complications of Kay’s relationship with Arthur and his weirdly changing role in the Arthurian canon from his role in Welsh stories through what came through in the French and later English tales are what inspired the story. The ill-fated mockery is actually from the Welsh, though, in “Culhwch and Olwen.”


End file.
